Stable freight rates as trade lines regain their balance
With demand now broadly matching available capacity, six more blanked sailings over the past week mark the stabilising of the deep-sea trades. This means the rates are currently finding a similar stability.
Freightos Baltic Index rate movements over the past week show a gentle US$35/FEU increase during the first week of May, reaching US$1,441 by the end of the week.
On the Pacific, the headhaul trade has shown a steeper increase of US$110/FEU in the same period, hitting US$1,645/TEU, its highest level since September last year. In the backhaul trades on the Pacific, by mid-March rates fell to the lowest level in more than a year, US$353/FEU, but have since recovered to US$467/FEU. Meanwhile, the Mediterranean eastbound cargo plateaued in mid-April at US$942/FEU and has since dropped back to US$911/FEU in the first week of May.
Earlier this week, Sea-Intelligence said: “Carriers are now only blanking very few additional sailings, and for the moment are satisfied that the currently announced blank sailings programme is sufficient to underpin the freight rate levels.”
Maritime Strategies International (MSI) believes that container shipping has been “in the eye of the storm,” over the past month. However, the shock of China’s production shutdown is now seeing the lines emerging from the Asian downturn.
(Source: Container News, 12 May)
There are no reported changes in the situation of the European ports. They remain fully operational; this is the case for Antwerp, Rotterdam, Le Havre and Hamburg.
Logistics company Maersk provides a Market Operational Status tool that allows users to determine the countries experiencing significant disruption, and captures and updates daily the latest operational status for each country. The purpose of this section is only informative: we have received reports of certain difficulties in some countries that are not included in the Maersk review.
Countries with significant disruption:
- Angola
- Botswana
- Eswatini
- Lesotho
- Malawi
- Mauritius
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- South Africa
- Sudan
- Uganda
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Countries with some disruption are:
- Algeria
- Benin
- Cameroon
- Big delays have been registered in order to export products.
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Djibouti
- Significant delays in Djibouti
- Dominican Republic
- Egypt
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Ghana
- Guinea
- SWaiting time of more than one week registered in Conakry by our partners.
- Kenya
- Madagascar
- Mauritania
- Morocco
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Republic of Congo
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Somalia
- Togo
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
Maersk also publishes Ocean Service Adjustments which includes a list of cancelled sailings around the world, ordered by continent.
Other important Maersk news from Africa:
- SAECS Service Enhancement – Citrus season
- Peak Seasonal Surcharge (PSS) – Scope World Excluding North America to Apapa, NG and Tin Can Island Port, NG
- Import Service (IMP) – Scope World to Djibouti
Additional information about sea freight can be found in Bolloré Logistics report and Logistics Cluster report.